Part 2 of our end-of-the-summer adventures

Ok, so I showed you the horses. For the first day that we were visiting with my Grandma in Oregon, my uncle, Adam, was in town from Sacramento, too. So, before we took him to the airport, we all went and got hotdogs at Roake's. I'd heard my grandpa talk about this place so much when I was a little girl. He loved, and I mean LOVED Roake's Hotdogs. I was excited to finally try one for myself. I'll admit, it wasn't bad! They put a special, secret sauce of some sort on the 'dogs and that makes them extra tasty. Uncle Adam loves them a lot too, and I think he and Grandma went out for hotdogs two or three other times during the weekend that he was in town.

After our hotdog tasting, we took Uncle Adam to the airport to go back home to Sacramento. It was fun to have him there with us for a good part of the day! Next, we went to visit my Aunt Mia and Uncle Lance, my cousin, Jeff, and his new wife, and their darling new baby. In fact, Jeff's wedding that weekend is why Uncle Adam was there. We, unfortunately, missed the wedding by one day! Our jobs and packing up our apartment just wouldn't permit us to leave a day earlier. I was so sad to miss the wedding, but excited that Jeff wasn't leaving on his honeymoon for another week, so I could see him. Here is Aunt Mia and the baby of the hour:

Look at this crying face! So perfectly scrunched up! I can't get enough!

On our way back to Grandma's from Aunt Mia's, we came upon one of the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen. Both ends of it could be seen, and it was double and triple- arched when you looked at it from certain angles. Very cool! My lens was just wide enough that I could fit the whole thing into some frames. Check this out!

We had so much fun with my grandma. She is one of my favorite people in the whole, wide, world. She is always a pleasure to be around. Never a dull moment!

Our next stop was Astoria, way up at the tip, top corner of western Oregon. This is where they filmed "The Goonies." It is a beautiful, costal town. We stayed there for one night at a KOA campsite. It was a lot of fun roasting hotdogs and playing card games with just the two of us. Here is a picture of our campsite. It looked like a corral. Weird, but whatever, I couldn't complain since I had electricity, a bathroom with showers twenty feet away from us, and a wi-fi connection. I was farting around on the internet while we were camping. Great fun. If you can't tell, I'm not really one for roughing it.

Here's my cute husband tending to dinner:It was soooooo good! I never used to like hotdogs, but I'm starting to like them now!The next morning we hit the road to go down to Bandon in southwestern Oregon. Here's what most of the drive looked like:When we got to Bandon, we were most excited to stop here. This is what we saw there:

One happy kitty

One HUGE set of paws

Lots of these little cuties. They were so little that I could have easily smuggled one out of the park in my purse.

With their mamas

Many funny faces

Eeyore

This is who we played with

This was our campsite in Bandon. So pretty and green. We had some amazing burgers there.

The next morning we headed back down to Sacramento. We unloaded the jeep of our camping gear, took showers, re-packed our suitcases, and jumped right back in the car so we could get to his parents' house in Lompoc (Santa Barbara County) by midnight. We LOVE driving for hours and hours at a time!

Part 3 coming soon!

"Well, as long as you're happy..."

So I got a job at Victoria's Secret. It's ok. I get an ok discount, but we can't combine it with sale prices, so that's kinda lame. There is a lot of really cute stuff there, and during my whole shift I walk around looking at stuff that I want to blow my paycheck on, so it's kinda dangerous.

Well, today, a co-worker was chatting with me. I need to mention that she is of a hispanic background. She was commenting on my wedding rings and asking how long I've been married, how long we've been together, etc. Then, out of the blue, she asks me what nationality my husband is. I didn't know why she asked, but I told her, "He's white." Then her whole demeanor changed, she kind of got stiff, and she said, "Well, that's nice. As long as you're happy. That's all that matters, right?" Then she suddenly walked away.

Um, ok?

What we've been up to for the last month or so... (Part 1: The Horses)

We have had a very busy end to our summer. It all started when we had to pack up our apartment on top of the three jobs between us, and the six photo shoots that I had to process. So, we finally got our apartment packed up and we took off to Oregon. First stop on the itinerary: Grandma's House!

When I was a litle girl I used to call this house, "Grandpa's Castle." Grandma and Grandpa built this house themselves. It was originally just the A-frame part that you see on the left side of he house, and then they added the rest of it on years later. It always seemed so big to me. In fact, the whole farm seemed so big to me. I guess it really had been a long time since I'd been there (about ten years, actually), because now that I'm bigger, everything seems so much smaller than I remember.

This is the beautiful forest drive up to the farm.

My favorite part of the farm: the horses!!!! (Please, pay no attention to the ugly girl in the pictures. Not my shining moment as far as looking fabulous was concerned.) This is me (ugh) and ol' Huck. He's a good boy, and he looks pretty good for being in his mid-twenties.

Well, he looked pretty good, except for the Rick James hair. His mane was so tangled and full of burs. I would have combed it out, but we didn't have time. That probably would have taken a good two hours to fix his mane. Maddy and I used to spend hours out in the paddocks with the horses grooming them. Unfortunately, this time, Brett and I had to take off. Someday soon, I will go up there again and give all the horses baths and clean out their hooves and brush them to a show-shine. Heck, I might even braid their manes for old time's sake.

Rick James:

Comet is such a sweetheart.

Horses are not very good at taking turns.


My Strider is a handsome boy. Please excuse my terrible, frumpy posture.




Then I took Huck for a ride. He wassn't very happy about being taken out of retirement, so his ears were back the whole time.

We can't forget about our wonderful Skala girl. She's almost thirty! She is the most well-trained horse I have ever riden. You say, "Skala, turn left," and she turns left! You say, "Walk" and she walks, "trot" and she trots. Its awesome. But, she's just so old I felt bad riding her, so I didn't ride her this time. I would have riden Strider, but last time I got on him he threw me and I broke my arm, so.... yeah. Bad idea.

More of our trip when I get home from work tonight!

Beautiful Monterey

This is where we live now

Lissy- need I show you more? :-P